27/04/2026

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Salah worry as Liverpool down Palace

LIVERPOOL moved ever closer to securing Champions League football next season with a 3-1 win over Crystal Palace yesterday but will be hoping Mohamed Salah has not played his final game for the club. Salah limped off in the second half at Anfield holding his hamstring with less than a month of his glittering career with the Reds remaining. “It’s too early to say but we all know Mo and how hard it is for him to leave the pitch,“ said Liverpool boss Arne Slot. “We have to wait and see how bad it is.” Two goals in five minutes just before half time tightened the grip of Slot’s men on a top five finish. British transfer record signing Alexander Isak

Aston Villa and Brentford. Slot said: “We don’t know. That is the best answer I can give. If I say there might be a chance, that is probably all the headlines that there might be a chance so we simply don’t know but what we do know is that the season in four weeks is over. “Not a lot of games are being played so we have to wait and see how his injury is and if he can return to play. “What I do know about Mo is he has taken so good care of his body all these years that he will have the minimum time required to recover from an injury and let’s hope for the best, that he is available in the last part.” – AFP/The Independent

“It was a lot more nervy because of the goal. I don’t think we deserved to concede it in that fashion,” added Slot. “Is there a game we play where there isn’t a talking point about the refe ree?” But Florian Wirtz secured the three points deep into stoppage time with just his fifth Premier League goal since a £100 million ($135 million) move from Bayer Leverkusen. Victory moves Liverpool up to fourth and opens up an eight-point lead on sixth-placed Brighton with just four games of the season remaining. Liverpool will assess 33-year-old Salah to see if he can play a part in any of their four remain ing fixtures, against Manchester United, Chelsea,

scored his first goal since returning from a leg break as he smartly controlled Alexis Mac Allister’s wayward effort on goal and swivelled on the ball to volley it past Dean Henderson. Andy Robertson then marked one of his final appearances at Anfield with a fine finish at the end of a lethal Liverpool counter-attack after third-choice goalkeeper Freddie Woodman had denied Palace an equaliser. Salah went to ground just before the hour mark holding the back of his left leg and was given a standing ovation as he made way for Jeremie Frimpong. Daniel Munoz reduced the Eagles’ arrears in controversial fashion as Liverpool wanted the game stopped with Woodman down injured.

Spurs win but injuries frustrate De Zerbi ROBERTO DE ZERBI bemoaned Tottenham’s injury curse after a first Premier League win of 2026 away to Wolves was overshadowed by potential significant problems for Xavi Simons and Dominic Solanke. Joao Palhinha’s 82nd-minute tap in earned De Zerbi a first victory as Spurs boss and ended a 16-match wait for a League win, but the north London club remain in the bottom three after West Ham produced a last-gasp winner at home to Everton. De Zerbi was eager to move on from results elsewhere and yet struggled to hide his frustration at injuries to Xavi and Solanke, who were forced off either side of half time with knee and left leg problems respectively. “I’m happy for the result. I hope this result can change something in our head, in our mentality and for the other results, it’s already very tough to win a game for us. If we put our heads on the other teams, it becomes too tough for me,” De Zerbi said. “I wouldn’t like to lose any other players because (Cristian) Romero, (Mohammed) Kudus, now Solanke and maybe Xavi. “We can win the games with the players, not with the coaches. The coaches are important but the players are more important. But I want to be positive. “For Solanke it is not a big problem. I don’t know how many games we lose him but I would like to know the situation with Xavi because the knee is always different than the muscular injury. “(Xavi) felt pain. Now I spoke to him two, three minutes ago. He feels better than the beginning of the injury.” Tottenham momentarily went out of the relegation zone when Everton levelled at West Ham before a late winner at London Stadium was almost followed by an equaliser for Wolves, only for Kinsky to produce a sensational one-hand save to deny Joao Gomes’ free-kick. “When I knew better my players, I understood we have the possibility and the chance to stay up. We have two points (from safety),” De Zerbi said. “Not 10 points, we have two points from West Ham. They are a good team, but also Tottenham have very good players and are a very good team.” – The Independent

Tonda Eckert (middle) and Southampton players applaud fans after the FA Cup semifinal against Manchester City at Wembley Stadium. – REUTERSPIC

Pep salutes salutes Saints

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola. – REUTERSPIC

Guardiola pays tribute to Southampton after Man City scrape into FA Cup final P EP GUARDIOLA paid trib ute to plucky Southampton after Manchester City scraped into a fourth suc we played in Burnley. “Unfortunately we are not clini cal enough and you have to wait. A holding midfielder made an out standing goal. “How many times in the second half did Southampton cross half way? One. And what a goal. Football is unpredictable. Ű BY EDWARD ELLIOT

“Now it’s important we have three days off for the players. I told them don’t think about football, rest. Now we start a season for five games, plus the final of the FA Cup.” Southampton were briefly dreaming of emulating their 1976 FA Cup win on the 50th anniversary of that triumph. The promotion-chasing Saints, who came into the con test on a 20-match unbeaten run, also had a first-half finish from Leo Scienza disallowed due to offside. Head coach Tonda Eckert said: “Over big parts of the game, (it was an) outstanding perform ance from the boys. “I think we’ve done absolutely everything to represent this foot ball club in the best way possible today. “Obviously we wanted to give the supporters a final here at Wembley. We were very close, so I think it’s quite natural that there is a good sense of disappointment straight after the game.” – The Independent

cessive FA Cup final with a dramatic 2-1 comeback victory at Wembley. A slow-burner of a semifinal came alive 11 minutes from time when Finn Azaz put the second-tier Saints on course for a shock win by curling home a sublime goal. Yet that served only to spark City into action and substitute Jeremy Doku quickly equalised with a deflected strike before Nico Gonzalez won it with an 87th-min ute piledriver. “I never thought it would be easy,” said City boss Guardiola, who made eight changes to the team which won 1-0 at Burnley in mid week “The energy we had second half with Jeremy and Savinho, for exam ple, and other players, if they start from the beginning they would not have this energy. “The first half was not bad. We didn’t concede much. In the sec ond half we played in the level that

“That is why sometimes it is nice and sometimes it is, ‘oh my God.’ Big credit to the way they defended and how they played. “The team in the second half was really exceptional and created chance after chance. Football is like this. We equalised with a deflec tion.” Guardiola, whose side slipped back to second place in the Premier League table following Arsenal’s 1-0 win over Newcastle, will not con template the prospect of a domestic treble until the final game of the season. The Spaniard has given his play ers three days off ahead of a trip to Everton next week. “It’s far away,” he said of the treble. “Before the Aston Villa game (on May 24), that night I will tell you if there is a chance. Now it’s far, far away.